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ALL THE BRIGHT PLACES

Simply Nicollette reviews - books, movies, television shows, etc. with slight spoilers. I try my best to review without giving away too much of the story.

All The Bright Places.
"The story of a boy called Finch and a girl named Violet"
All The Bright Places follows two teenagers, Theodore Finch and Violet Markey, who just so happened to be thinking about death at the top of their school bell tower on the same day. It's a beautiful story about love, and living life in order to find the importance it contains.

This review is really special to me. This story truly touched my heart.
It has taken me awhile to actually sit down to write all my feelings out, but I finally have. I hope you enjoy my thoughts and share your own with me.

All The Bright Places - Book Review

"Let me ask you something. Do you think there's such a thing as a perfect day?""What?""A perfect day. Start to finish. When nothing terrible or sad or ordinary happens. Do you think it's possible?""I don't know.""Have you ever had one?""No.""I've never had one either, but I'm looking for it."

Theodore Finch and Violet Markey.
The story between these two characters is so brutally honest and rich - and there is just something so special about seeing their relationship grow throughout the book. We first meet these characters on the ledge of their school's bell tower contemplating life and death, and what it all means. It was surprisingly perfect the way Finch, an outcast at school, talked Violet, a beautiful popular girl, off that ledge. In those first few chapters you realize that this story is going to be about more than just love.. & it was.

"You make me feel gold, flowing"

Finch is the outcast of the school - he is also referred to as Theodore 'Freak' - right from the beginning you can see how obsessed he is with trying to find this perfect way of leaving the world. It's obvious that he is battling some kind of mental illness, but in a way it feels as if he's in denial throughout the whole book - but the special thing about it all is that he's trying to latch onto things to keep him, from what he refers to as 'awake' - and as soon as he meets Violet you can tell, that this girl might just be enough to keep him from falling 'asleep' again.

Violet Markey is a beautiful and popular girl at their school - on the outside she could seem like she is holding her life together after her sister's death, but on the inside we can tell that it's the complete opposite. She spends every day counting down the days until 'freedom' when she finally graduates high school.

So - we have two completely different people who met in unlikely manner and find themselves falling deeply in love with each other by the end of this book. A boy who is teaching a girl to live after facing death and a girl giving a boy a reason to live while trying to run away from death.

"You make me lovely, and it's so lovely to be lovely to the one I love..."

I haven't felt so connected to a character as I felt to Finch.
There was no glamourizing or shaming throughout this book. The story was very honest and real - not only with the relationship between Finch and Violet, but with every character - especially Finch. Every feeling Finch felt, from his thoughts to his actions, felt very real to me. I felt like I was reading my own story of how I sometimes felt in high school. He felt different, he felt alone - even at times when he was surrounded by someone he loved, and he felt labeled. He felt like he had to belong even when he shouldn't have felt that way.

"If that blue could stay for ever; if that hole could remain for ever."There was nothing to make him last.
This story dealt with both life and death, beautifully.
Seeing how Violet finds a way to live again - the way each wandering served a certain purpose to both life and death was really special.

Sadly, the book dealt with death just as much as it dealt with Violet finding a life to live again.
The crying was the worst part about this story.
After reading Finch's death - I didn't sleep all night. I was so angry. I was so upset. I wanted to keep rewriting it in my mind that he wouldn't die. It was just so real and way too sad.
I wanted to see another chapter with his name at the beginning.
I wanted him to find his way back home.

"He's not nowhere. He's not dead. He just found that other world."

After being angry for about a day - I picked the book back up and finished reading the story.
I was surprisingly happy with what I found.
I can't really put the ending into words, but it was something special. Even when Finch was gone, he still found a way for Violet to continue to live.

"I'll never forgive you for leaving me. I just wish you could forgive me. You saved my life. Why couldn't I save yours?"RATING:5 out of 5 stars

I don't think I can express more of how beautiful this story was.
I know everyone who follows me knows how passionate I am about spreading awareness for mental illness. There is so much stigma around mental illness, especially suicide - there are many things people don't understand. There are things that are hard to explain because it's simply, just so different for everyone who suffers from a mental illness.

It's important to know that no matter how weird and different you feel - you are never alone.
You can read all about my own story here.
Don't be afraid to speak up - throughout the book we can see that Finch never wanted to speak up because when he tried that once, it only resulted into something negative - but there were parts in the story where we could see that he really wanted to be comfortable speaking up without being judged again. Don't ever stop trying - find that person, find that hotline, and speak up.
There's always hope out there.

Join me and leave a comment about your thoughts on the book. Tell us your story. Inspire through your own words.